Distributed Systems Architecture

Middleware is the bridge that connects distributed applications across different physical locations, with different hardware platforms, network technologies, operating systems, and programming languages. This book describes middleware from two different perspectives: from the viewpoint of the systems programmer and from the viewpoint of the applications programmer. It focuses on the use of open source solutions for creating middleware and the tools for developing distributed applications. The design principles presented are universal and apply to all middleware platforms, including CORBA and Web Services. The authors have created an open-source implementation of CORBA, called MICO, which is freely available on the web. MICO is one of the most successful of all open source projects and is widely used by demanding companies and institutions, and has also been adopted by many in the Linux community.

* Provides a comprehensive look at the architecture and design of middleware—the bridge that connects distributed software applications* Includes a complete, commercial-quality open source middleware system written in C++* Describes the theory of the middleware standard CORBA as well as how to implement a design using open source techniques

Arno Puder received his master's degree in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern and his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. After working for Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T Labs, he is currently a professor of computer science at San Francisco State University. His special interests include distributed systems and wireless sensor networks.

Kay Römer is currently a senior researcher and lecturer at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). He received his Ph.D. in computer science from ETH with a thesis on sensor networks. Kay holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. His research interests encompass sensor networks, software infrastructures for ubiquitous computing, and middleware for distributed systems.

Frank Pilhofer received his masters in computer science from the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. After completing MICO's CORBA Components implementation, he joined Mercury Computer Systems, where he now works on component-based, real-time data streaming middleware for Software Radio.